What did you do in the Apiary today?

[colinc]

Erected a trampoline.......

Son turns 3 in 2 weeks time so it’s a birthday present. It’s pertinent cos he loves the bees. Hoping to start removing empty boxes tomorrow and reorientating hives.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Planted several bee friendly plants, after digging and weeding in clay soil. I ache!

 

[Anduril]

Repainted 5 queens, one hive in supersedure and another is a drone layer. 4 hives bursting at the seams.

 

[Anduril]

Forgot to say found one queen to mark looked away, then looked back, totally disappeared. Went through the hive twice, then resorted to pairing the frames, still no queen. Then paired frames in spare brood boxes, dismantled the rest of the hive, just the floor left. Found queen underneath the floor.

 

[madasafish]

First inspection.
17 C sunny and really still removed nadir no Queen or brood put it to one side. Took eke of the brood after a bit of smoke with the smoker. Had to remove burr comb of frames first before I could go through the frames. I have bias on 2 frames and 2 frames either side of stores capped so I've 4 frames of stores. I bruised the frames either side of the brood and left the other two untouched. I didn't see the queen but seeing the bias was good enough for me. QE on then supper there was a small amount of nectar in the middle frame so theres nectar about and lots of gorse willow . pollen .
Going forward I plan to do another inspection in a week or so to see if they have moved stores and to find HM to mark her , also the development of the bias.
Everything seemed to be good and I'm happy I was surprised to see so many stores they've had about 3.75 kg of fondant since Feb 20 th .

Q. Could I start feeding syrup now.
Cheers mark

Now is the time to stop feeding. Lots of forage and queen needs space to lay.

 

[Curly green fingers]

Now is the time to stop feeding. Lots of forage and queen needs space to lay.

I have taken fondant of . if they don't move stores I'll replace with drawn comb to give her more space , I plan to move brood frames into a new brood box next inspection so I've got more of a chance of finding HM to mark her.
Question Madasafish how long would it take them to move the bruised stores?
There's blackthorn out and some dandelions in the fields so no syrup needed cheers mark
I wanted to add there was 4 girls bouncing of my Vail on this inspection that's the first time that's happened.

 

[JWF]

Of the four hives that have made it so far :

1. On 14*12 - four frames of BIAS, looks to be expanding
2. On std nat - no brood, no eggs, lots of bees. Lots of polished cells, lots of pollen going in. Will see what's happening in a week's time
3. On 14*12 - 7 frames BIAS, lots of eggs so expanding rapidly. Evidence of OSR forage. Super added.
4. On 14*12 - 8 frames BIAS, lots of eggs so expanding rapidly. Evidence of OSR forage. Super added.

Also saw local fields of OSR have just started to flower when out and about last night.

 

[nantmoel]

Forgot to say found one queen to mark looked away, then looked back, totally disappeared. Went through the hive twice, then resorted to pairing the frames, still no queen. Then paired frames in spare brood boxes, dismantled the rest of the hive, just the floor left. Found queen underneath the floor.

I had a queen yesterday take off from a frame only to find her in the Nuc next to hers, I could see a clump of bees attacking her, rescued her and put her back in the Nuc she flew out of.

 

[beeno]

Walked my hives last night and it smelt as if they were bringing something in. There is a flow on here dandelion judging by the yellow comb they are drawing. Bringing in a lot of rusty brown/orange pollen, aged blackthorn or something else? Supers on this week for sure.

 

[colinc]

Hawthorn just breaking out here, love that smell. Bees active between showers today.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[mark s]

I had a good start fell in some stinging nettles!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Wingy]

Discovers all those Langstroth frames I've been putting together tensioning & fixing the wires then adding foundation are too deep for 5 out of 7 of my supers DOH!
Never realised the ones I was given were shallower or that they came in different depths, until now.

 

[Swarm]

Intended to do a first inspection this weekend. Cold and overcast all day yesterday, rained all day today.
Fine weather forecast for the following week, no surprise there then

 

[Helen]

Moved a National colony into a 14x12 dartington in new apiary. Also, moved a huge nuc which was busting at the seams into a dartington. During the day, many bees sat on the outside of the nuc - looked like swarming but just lack of space. Now got a new dartington to fill.

Took a quick look at the other colonies - removed remaining fondant. Bees quite pingy which is unusual as my bees are usually quite placid. Hoping it's just the new bees not being used to seeing the roof of their house being taken off. Didn't do a full inspection ... just a quick look to remove fondant and put super on.

 

[nantmoel]

Intended to do a first inspection this weekend. Cold and overcast all day yesterday, rained all day today.
Fine weather forecast for the following week, no surprise there then

It was a lovely day up here, I managed to look through all hives and Nucs.

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Just watched the rain AGAIN after a warm dry day yesterday. Bees largely stayed at home. So, prepared frames and foundation and made a couple of dummy boards.
Found some foundation sheets had become brittle and cracked through the cold weather. Only just pliable enough today to fit to frames!!

 

[Zante]

Looking forward to the inspection tomorrow, today wasn't just tshirt weather, it was also shorts and sandals. Hopefully the spell won't be broken tomorrow...

I'll be taking another super to the apiary to store above the empty hive, so everything will be ready for the Acacia flow. There are still two old black frames in the populated hive. Since they were the only ones with brood in I couldn't remove them, but tomorrow I'm planning to move them to the edge of the box, so it'll be easier to remove them later on.

I hope they've started to use up all the **** sugar that they still had in the comb. Last week they were flying but not as much as I was expecting, so I hope they were still using those **** stores. I have still some empty comb from the dead colony, so I will see if it's worth removing some of that sugar or not.

In any case, lesson learnt: don't overdo the feeding for winter. By the time forage is starting to be scarce usually the temperatures here are still good for inspection, so I will make sure they actually need feeding before feeding them.

... and of course it had to rain almost all day.

It has cleared now, and it's looking quite nice for tomorrow. Let's see if I can pop to the apiary after work.

 

[simonforeman]

Warm dry but overcast today... both hives bringing in lots of pollen... some bees were that loaded that they crash landed onto the walk in to the hive...

Looking like a very warm week this week...

 

[Anduril]

Intended to do a first inspection this weekend. Cold and overcast all day yesterday, rained all day today.
Fine weather forecast for the following week, no surprise there then

It was a lovely day up here, I managed to look through all hives and Nucs.

Lovely day for me yesterday, finished by moving around hives today in the rain.

 

[Swarm]

Just been talking to a friend in Blaengarw, he was sitting in the garden in a T shirt. I couldn't even see the Garth.